For this year’s competition, 187 Canadian magazines from coast to coast to coast—English and French, print and digital—submitted the work of more than 2,000 writers, editors, photographers, illustrators, art directors, and other creators. The NMAF’s 125 volunteerjudges have selected a total of 201 submissions from 70 different Canadian publications for awards in 28 written, visual, editorial, and best magazine categories.

BEST MAGAZINE AWARDSThree publications have been shortlisted in each of the four Best Magazine divisions. The outstanding nominees are:

Best Magazine: News, Business, General Interest

Best Magazine: Service & Lifestyle

Best Magazine: Art, Literary & Culture

Best Magazine: Special Interest

MAGAZINE GRAND PRIXThe Magazine Grand Prix award—the highest honour bestowed to a publication—will be presented to one publication among the four winners of the Best Magazine awards, revealed at the gala on May 31st.

BEST NEW MAGAZINE WRITERThe jury selected four nominees for Best New Magazine Writer. This award is given to the individual whose early work in magazines shows the highest degree of craft and promise. This year’s emerging writers are:

Jennifer Thornhill Verma for “Letters From Pop,” published in Maisonneuve

Max Binks-Collier for “Distant Relatives,” published in Maisonneuve

Mugoli Samba for “Wilbur Howard and the White Church,” published in the United Church Observer

ISSUE GRAND PRIXAlso new to the 2019 lineup, the Issue Grand Prix award honours quality and originality of the content of an entire issue as well as its relevance to the intended readers. The magazine finalists are: Alberta Views, BESIDE, Canadian Art, Inuit Art Quarterly, LSTW, Nouveau Projet, The Walrus, The Site Magazine, Prairie Fire & Contemporary Verse 2, and University of Toronto Magazine.

· The jury shortlisted two of Edmonton-based photographer Amber Bracken’s photographs for Portrait Photography: “Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service,” featured in Maclean’s magazine, and “Life After Coal,” published in The Narwhal.

· Best New Magazine Writer nominee Anais Granofsky is also a finalist in the category of Long-Form Feature Writing for her piece “Between Two Worlds” published in Toronto Life.

· Vancouver-based writer Bruce Grierson earned two nominations, first for an essay published in Eighteen Bridges (“Have You Heard?”) and second for a long-form story featured in Hakai Magazine (“The Cavernous World under the Woods”).

· Emily Landau is nominated for two articles published in Toronto Life (“The Greatest Showman”) and Toronto Life Stylebook (“I, Tanya”) in addition to being credited as the handling editor for four other stories.

· Also a double nominee this year is writer Simon Lewsen, for his profile “The Freeland World”

penned for The Walrus, and short feature article “A New Leaf,” published in BESIDE.

· L’actualité’s journalist Noémi Mercier is once again a finalist this year for Columns (“Des gars, des filles”) and Long-Form Feature Writing (“Mourir seul”).

· Maritime-based writer Chelsea Murray is finalist for Personal Journalism (“The Agony of Intimacy,” published in Hazlitt) as well as for Long-Form Feature Writing (“Joe and the Whale,” published in The Deep).

· Writer Katrina Onstad is nominated for two stories: in Essays for “Class Divide”, published in The Walrus, as well as in Profiles, for “Mr. Robot”, written for Toronto Life.

TOP NOMINATED MAGAZINES

Among the 70 publications shortlisted, Toronto Life leads with 19 nominations. The Walrus follows with 13 nominations, while L’actualité, Maclean’s, and Nouveau Projet share the third place with 9 nominations each. Other top nominated titles include:

MAGAZINE

NOMINATIONS

Toronto Life

19

The Walrus

13

L’actualité

9

Maclean’s

9

Nouveau Projet

9

Hazlitt

8

Report on Business

7

Maisonneuve

6

Canadian Geographic

5

Cottage Life

5

Dînette Magazine

5

FASHION Magazine

5

The Fiddlehead

5

The New Quarterly

5

The Site Magazine

5

Publications with 4 nominations each: The Narwhal, University of Toronto Magazine

FIRST-TIME NOMINEESMagazines nominated for their first National Magazine Award are: Canadian Cycling, Fête Chinoise, Le Trente, The Maritime Edit, The Narwhal, and Title Magazine.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTOn April 30, the NMAF was delighted to name Linda Spalding, an acclaimed Canadian writer and a longtime editor of Brick magazine, the recipient of the 2019 Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, recognizing her career excellence and leadership in Canadian magazines.

ABOUT THE 42nd NMAsThe National Media Awards Foundation will welcome Canada’s top writers, artists, editors, art directors, publishers, and other creators to the 42nd National Magazine Awards gala, hosted by Omar Mouallem.Gold, Silver, and Honourable Mention awards will be presented at the Arcadian Court in Toronto on May 31, at the annual gala. Tickets are on sale at magazine-awards.com.

Originally from Topeka, Kansas, Linda moved to Toronto, Ontario (after stints in Hawaii and Mexico) in 1982. In 1985, the “story goes Linda took on the role of publisher of Brick on a dare,” says Laurie D. Graham, the current publisher of Brick. That dare lasted a remarkable 33 years, as Linda oversaw 75 issues of Brick. Linda was the “editor and sometimes publisher” says Kim Jernigan (Special Projects Editor, The New Quarterly), and now she “continues as the one of the magazine’s owners (a.k.a. Fairy-godparents).”

Throughout Linda’s 75 issue tenure at Brick, the magazine “underwent an unbelievable transformation… a complete editorial and design overhaul, really turning the magazine into something completely new—a transformation that would by any standards be thought of as a very risky undertaking, were it not so successful,” says Laurie.

With Linda at the helm, “Brick dared to be international,” Kim reminds us, despite existing in a time of literary nationalism, with funding dependent on publishing Canadian content. Pushing at the boundaries of Brick allowed the magazine to flourish within Canada and gain recognition globally. Linda’s transformation of Brick included publishing a multiplicity of content (photographs, drawings, handwritten letters, manuscript pages, meditations, field reports, essay length reviews, memoirs, and more) and voices.

Canadian novelist Michael Helm writes that, “until I found Brick, as a writer I’d been low on hope, and as a reader, starved for local amazements.” Kim echoes this sentiment, in that “it was Brick that allowed [her] to imagine there might be a place for a new writer.”

While
growing Brick, Linda published an
astonishing seven books, her novel “The Purchase” winning the 2012 Governor
general’s Literary Award. Earlier, in 2003, Linda received the Harbourfront
Festival Prize recognizing her contributions to the Canadian literary
community.

Kim is careful to point out that Linda “paid attention to the bottom line, working to keep Brick solvent but not at the expense of its contributors.” Michael gives us a glimpse into Brick’s editorial meetings, in which Linda “was forever trying to find ways to give contributors more of the magazine’s meager funds.” It seems that throughout Brick’s transformation, Linda’s dedication to both established and emerging voices remained constant.

Constant, too, are the words by which Linda’s colleagues describe her: Kim speaks of her “editorial acumen and fierce determination,” reading submissions with “clarity, tact, and trenchancy.” Michael Redhill—in a letter to Linda, published in Brick—writes that he has been “lucky to encounter such ferocity, which is a sign of authenticity, because behind it is a person whose love can never be doubted and whose passion is so deep it’s a style.” This fierce love for Brick and its surrounding community makes the fairy godparent comparison all the more true. Linda Spalding spent 33 years working magic, turning the magazine into “more than the sum of its parts,” says Kim.

“To be part of Brick is to know that Linda is now in your corner, and that’s perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned from her: that you can show care for the people who are making this magazine with you, that it is required of you to show care,” says Laurie.

For
the transformative role Linda has played in the Canadian magazine publishing field
and in the lives of Canada’s creators, the NMAF is incredibly proud to present
Linda with this year’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement.

NOMINEES – 2019 NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDSFinalists for the 42nd National Magazine Awards will be announced tomorrow, May 1, 2019 at 10am ET on www.magazine-awards.com,on Facebook and Twitter at @MagAwards. The 42nd National Magazine Awards gala is set for May 31, 2019 at the Arcadian Court. Join us to Celebrate Canadian Creators. Tickets will be on sale on Wednesday, May 1.

ABOUT THE OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD The NMAF’s most prestigious individual prize is the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, an award that recognizes an individual’s innovation and creativity through contributions to the magazine industry. The award is open to circulation experts, editors, marketing, sales and promotion professionals, publishers, creators, designers, production managers – in short, to everyone in the industry. It cannot be given posthumously. For more information and previous winners, visit magazine-awards.com/oa.

What makes a magazine unputdownable? It arguably starts with what makes us pick one up: a bright, moving and eye-catching cover.
On May 1st we announced the nominees for the 41st National Magazine Awards, and we are excited to welcome Canada’s best writers, artists, editors, art directors, and more to the gala on June 1st. [Tickets]

Truth First

Love Your Body

Tim Hortons Meets the Machine

Report on BusinessDuncan Hood, editorDomenic Macri, art director

Escaping America

The WalrusJessica Johnson, editorPaul Kim, art director

The winner of the Cover Grand Prixwill be announced on June 1st at the 41st NMA Gala in Toronto. Tickets are on sale now.
Check out all the nominees for the 41st National Magazine Awards.
Follow us on Twitter @MagAwards for all the nominations news and an awesome live feed on the night of the gala. #NMA18.

On Tuesday, May 29, the NMAF will present Winners’ Circle, a special event that will bring together award-winning and nominated writers, editors, artists, art directors to meet, mingle, pitch and learn about the value of diversity.
All National Magazine Awards winners, and past and current finalists are invited to join us at One King West Hotel in Toronto, from 12pm to 2:30pm for this exciting learning and networking activity. The event is FREE and includes a lunch for attendees.The Value of Diversity: A Panel DiscussionThe two-part event will begin with a panel discussion moderated by the national columnist for StarMetro, Vicky Mochama. A regular columnist for the Toronto Star, Vicky writes about issues at the intersections of race, politics, gender and migration.Vicky will be joined by panel members Andree Lau, Eternity Martis, Hadiya Roderique and Kyle Edwards for a discussion around the theme of diversity in the media.

Fast PitchAfter the panel presentation, it’s time to mingle and network with your peers. We’ll be facilitating introductions between writers, artists, editors and art directors. If you’re planning to attend and would like to have a chance to sit down with an award-winning writer/artist or an award-winning magazine editor or art director, let us know: events@magazine-awards.com.
We’re looking forward to welcoming you on May 29 from 12 to 2:30pm at One King West Hotel in downtown Toronto.All nominees and winners from the National Magazine Awards are invited to attend. Contact us to RSVP or request more information. Please RSVP by May 23. Space is limited and available on a first come basis.

Congratulations to the finalists of the 41st National Magazine Awards. The winners will be presented at the NMA Gala on June 1, 2018 at the Arcadian Court in Toronto. Tickets are on sale at magazine-awards.com.

This year, 197 Canadian magazines from coast to coast to coast—English and French, print and digital—entered the best of their editorial and design to the National Magazine Awards, submitting the work of more than 2000 writers, editors, photographers, illustrators, art directors and other creators.
The NMAF’s 150 volunteerjudges have nominated a total of 208 submissions from 81 different Canadian magazines for awards in 29 written, visual, integrated and special categories.
Gold, Silver and Honourable Mention awards will be announced at the Arcadian Court in Toronto on June 1, at the 41st National Magazine Awards gala. Gold winners in Writing and Visual Awards categories receive a cash prize of $1000.Credit Changes: The deadline to make any changes to your nomination credit is Friday May 4. Email staff@magazine-awards.com to make any credit changes to your nomination.
For sponsorship enquiries please contact NMAF Managing Director Barbara Gould at staff@magazine-awards.com.